If there’s a better gov-program than Social Security, I’d like to know what it is-By BOB HERBERT

[kpete]

Raising False Alarms
By BOB HERBERT
Published: January 24, 2011

If there’s a better government program than Social Security, I’d like to know what it is.

As the Economic Policy Institute has explained, Social Security "is emphatically not the cause of the federal government’s long-term deficits, since it is prohibited from borrowing and must pay all benefits out of dedicated tax revenues and savings in its trust funds."

Without Social Security today, nearly half of all Americans aged 65 or older would be poor. With it, fewer than 10 percent live in poverty.

.............

There has always been feverish opposition on the right to Social Security. What is happening now, in a period of deficit hysteria, is that this crucial retirement program is being dishonestly lumped together with Medicare as an entitlement program that is driving federal deficits.

the rest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/opinion/25herbert.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&ref=opinion&adxnnlx=1295950404-KNSbza+01x/mCT2HDAn8UQ

[Little Star]

1. I wish Bob Herbert was our president! Love that guy!

[Octafish]

6. +1

Great journalist with a kind heart and a top mind. It's what democracy demands.

[Skink]

2. I wish Obama would read Herberts column.

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. Doubt that would make a difference with Obama. He won't be needing that 'entitlement' program.

:eyes:

[Deep13]

4. Public education, but that's mostly state and local. nt

[highplainsdem]

5. K&R

[bullwinkle428]

7. I'm sure Paul "The Coupon King" Ryan has a perfectly good alternative!

:sarcasm: